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Written by Helena Trooperman Date posted: 20th April 2020
Maybe you have a story in mind and you’re thinking about whether near future really is part of Sci-fi or whether it’s best in general fiction–a place to swim with thousands of other books and never be found. I hope if you do write near future, this post helps you mitigate some of the problems. Or maybe you’re a reader and you’re looking for something new to read that’s not full on science fiction but still exciting. I hope this clarifies matters for you too.
Impostor syndrome is a thing!
I pondered for years as I wrote my first novel about which genre it fell into. When I chatted with friends and other authors the subject just became more muddied for me. I fell into the trap of excluding myself from the science fiction community (which is awesome by the way.) I felt my stories belonged nowhere and this made it difficult for me to share my work. I did share, but I felt a huge fraud and more times than I can remember, I almost gave up. Many writers feel like that, so like me, you and I… are in good company.
Finding your author tribe is important.
Take heart. Speculative fiction (near future) is very much a part of the science fiction community, which often calls itself SFF&H (Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror,) and they are an extremely welcoming tribe.
Finally, the most important thing is to write from your heart… because there’s magic in an author’s words and readers can tell just how much there is in a story.
No sexy spacecrafts then!
This embodies the idea that if science fiction is not set far enough in the future it cannot be fantastical enough to hold the readers attention. Further to this, an off-world setting is important and tech must have no resemblance to anything we have today. This means writing near future or speculative fiction is somewhat a maverick endeavour.
But… in the past decade, speculative fiction has really taken off thanks to authors like Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, and Michael Crichton. Although, speculative fiction is still not considered a genre on the major online stores. Instead, ‘Speculative fiction’ and ‘near future’ are simply keywords that the science fiction genre can be searched on. This is the main problem.
Finding speculative fiction is not so straight forward for the reader and some of this is because there is no specific category for this sub-genre of fiction. Stories are considered cross-genre and as such must fit into Thriller (Technothriller sub-genre) and Sci-fi (High tech science fiction sub-genre). Often there’s a third sub-genre associated with a book, but this differs wildly from Political to Cyberpunk. If you get the chance read the reviews of a well known speculative fiction book. For example…
Books like William Gibson’s Blue Ant series said by the author to be set, ‘ten seconds in the future,’ is considered ‘more accessible’ than his other famous sci-fi works (eg: Neuromancer,) with a ‘James Bond-ish edge,’ and other comments like ‘thriller that whirls around the world.’
This also goes for Michael Crichton and Neal Stephenson that combine sci-fi stories set here on Earth within the near future timeline. All three of these authors are excessively accomplished and enjoyed by thousands of fans that follow them for updates on their new releases. Their books are thrilling and most certainly science fiction.
For new authors coming through the idea of where they belong is difficult to unravel. Are they thriller or sci-fi? How can they decide which to align themselves with more? The truth is, such a story has to fit in both genres and does this with its cover and blurb. Here I’d give a word of caution–what works in this cross-genre in terms of cover requires professional help. That’s because these covers need a fine tuning other sci-fi or thriller covers don’t. Covers are also created well before publishing and the designer is forecasting what the trend in cover will be.
A cover needs to fit cross-genre, but also stand-out.
Getting feedback on your cover in this cross-genre is problematic. Authors often ask other authors, but I’d recommend asking readers. They know what they will buy whereas authors will studiously check what’s current and will try to clone similar themes of covers to fit in having no more understanding of the cross-genre themselves. (All with the best intentions–of course.)
As covers are more wordy than others mid-genre, reader’s choice falls on the blurb and it’s almost an Indie Author’s undoing to write it, but that goes for most blurbs. It is a different skill set, a marketing one, but in cross-genre it is even more tricky. Unlike established authors that can sell on their name as well as their blurb, newer authors succeed on their blurb. The time saved is worth more than the cost of getting professional help.
Mind-melding with the reader–now that’s sexy!
For the reader, the connect to character and situation is seamless and often easier to make. Readers can identify with the character’s surrounding and circumstances, which helps. Tech is more advanced but must have roots in something already existing and this allows the author-to-reader mind-meld to occur.
It’s dreaming what could be. This is a double-edged sword for me. This is where the future is either dystopian or utopian. The general feel is that an author must be dealing with a dystopia in order to move toward the positive utopia. However, in near future we are blessed with the ‘now-ish’ feel. We never seem to consider now as dystopian even when it is and that’s to do with our immersion into the situation. Those that call ‘the now’ dystopian, often are considered conspiracy theorists because most of us simply cannot accept this idea. Therefore, in my humble opinion, stories move toward the dystopian most of the time–aliens come to eat us, that kind of thing. I’d argue it doesn’t have to be that way.
The ultimate thought experiment.
For me, I think of it differently. I think of how society complains about too much tech, too many robots. Yet, it’s our tech we reach for when there’s a problem. There are most definitely ethical issues to watch for, but what if tech is the thing that could saves us? What if near future sci-fi is about walking that fine line and doesn’t answer the question about whether tech is our undoing, but leaves us pondering its potential for going either way?
Distant galaxy and space travel science fiction can leave many potential readers unable to connect at that in-depth level, even if they love the world and tech being described. But with near future, (wait for it…,) there’s the opportunity for readers who usually avoid sci-fi to discover a whole new fantastical window on what could be. It has the capacity to be more immersive, provocative, and give a more holistic way to view fellow humans. For example, a thriller may be country versus country, but near future is more likely to consider the humanity involved in actions, the future of humanity, and the well being of the planet.
Simple. For me, it’s fun. A place I transport myself to that’s attainable. It’s also the story that came together for me first. However, I’m always enhancing my craft to tell that story–the current work in progress–the way I’d like to read it.
It’s quite literally, an armchair delivery system directly linked to the author’s imagination. No matter what’s happening right now, a mind transportation to somewhere else–is as–good as a rest.